Caffe Bene Social Media Campaign
Committed to creating a compelling and engaging narrative that appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos.
About Our Client
Caffe Bene
Caffe Bene is a local coffee shop with two prominent locations on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, Green Street in Champaign and Gregory Street in Urbana. Although it’s a staple for university students to work, study, and hang out, its social media presence is quite lacking and the two cafes could benefit from some more online traffic. Not only to increase business by pulling from a larger base of customers than campus students but also to foster a sense of community among its existing patrons.
Philosophy
Our philosophy for a successful social media campaign for Caffe Bene is rooted in the rhetorical triangle and rhetorical arrangements. We aim to create a compelling and engaging narrative that appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos.
Our campaign will build on the client's existing rhetorical arrangements by utilizing various mediums such as video stories, blog posts, and user-generated content. These strategies will transform Caffe Bene's online presence into a multi-faceted platform that resonates with a diverse audience, taking advantage of the ethos, pathos, and logos appeals.
1
Ethos
To establish credibility, we will highlight the cafe's history, values, and commitment to providing high-quality coffee and pastries. Sharing stories of the cafe's journey and its connections to the local community will foster trust among customers. Another way to establish credibility through ethos is to show reviews and comments made by customers clearly. By being transparent and fostering a good connection between management and customers, Caffe Bene will seem more legitimate.
2
Pathos
We intend to tap into the emotions of Caffe Bene's audience by showcasing the cafe as a place for relaxation, inspiration, and connection. Emotional storytelling through visual and written content will evoke a sense of belonging. We can use pathos by advertising the cafe as a place to come with friends and family, relax after a long day, or even tune out the world and focus on school or work. This can be achieved by posting a variety of photos and posts on social media to highlight the different versions of the cafe.
3
Logos
To appeal to the logical side, we will present the cafe's offerings in a clear and informative manner. This includes emphasizing the quality of ingredients, nutritional information, and special promotions, helping customers make informed choices. Logos is all about transparency and simply having the best food and coffee. Caffe Bene must hire competent, hard-working staff that keep the restaurant clean and produce good products. Logically, if the staff is polite, the coffee and food are good, and the ambiance is appropriate for a coffee shop (with free wifi, of course), then the shop should be successful.
Goals
Social Media Goals
01
Primary Goal
Reach 3,000 followers on at least two IG accounts (preferably @caffebeneongreen and @caffebene_urbana), so 6,000 followers total over a period of 6 months. UIUC has a student population of about 33,000, and Caffe Bene’s 4 accounts combined don’t even reach a tenth of that
03
Tertiary Goal
Increase Caffe Bene’s IG content and establish a regular posting schedule with a variety of different posts. Curate a unified aesthetic that’s unique to each account but maintains the brand feel of Caffe Bene (ex. stick to a similar color scheme for both accounts but vary the use of fonts, and use specific photo filters for food)
02
Secondary Goal
Raise user interaction from under 100 likes per post to over 500. Espresso Royale (@espresso.royale), another coffee cafe chain on campus, has 171 posts and 1.2 thousand followers on its main IG account. They tend to post menu changes (logos), coupons (logos and ethos), and other general engagement posts (pathos). Starbucks on Neil St (@sbux.on.neil) sticks to shades of green on their IG feed and intersperses announcements with personal posts (pictures of employees, dogs, etc.). These personal posts get a higher like count than general announcements.
Ideas
Social Media Audit
Analyzing Caffe Bene's Current Social Media
115 Likes | 118 Followers | 2 Reviews
Only posts are updating profile pictures and banners.
“Fresh Korean pastries all day, everyday!”
Client's Philosophy
Not Prioritizing Web Presence
Caffe Bene’s most used social media is Instagram, though it has on record used Facebook and has a separate website. However, The website is a generalized one for the brand, not for these two specific cafes.
Content on @caffebeneongreen & @caffebene_urbana is all pictures, no videos or reels; @caffebeneongreen has some highlights. The majority of pictures are just menu items, though a handful on @caffebene_urbana show off the actual location. From this, it can be implied that their previous social media strategy relied heavily on pathos i.e. that possible patrons would be drawn to their page/locations by the visible quality of the food. The descriptions on the posts share a similar quality. Some posts have prices when advertising menu items and one of the posts (on the @caffebene_urbana Instagram) talks about alternative milk options for drinks — so here, they’re appealing more to logos over pathos. An earlier post had tags, but that’s the only post on both decently active Instagram accounts that has any tags on it. That post did the second highest numbers (15 likes versus the most recent post’s 18 likes). Sometime in the last year and a half, all accounts stopped posting completely. The client may believe social media won’t be useful for them or that it is not worth prioritizing.
“Nothing beats a strawberry flower 🌺 Come try the Strawberry & Cheese Honeybread today!”
“Want to catch up with friends and stay out of the cold? Come dine-in with us~ ☕️🧋”
Client's Goals
Based on our research, Caffe Bene predominantly focused on showing the quality of their products and their ambiance to attract customers. They leaned heavily on the visually aesthetic nature of their posts and did not drive engagement on their posts. Their previous social media campaigns do not appear to be well thought out or executed.
In the future, their goals should be organized into the following steps:
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Brand Unification: Unify their social media presence in Urbana Champaign into a single, cohesive presence for consistency and effective marketing. This should mean they have no more than two (ideally one) account(s) for their Urbana and Green locations.
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Building Engagement: Their social media posts should drive engagement through likes, comments, and shares- this could be done in a number of ways including, but not limited to, collaborating with university groups or RSOs, supporting local events, and posting more content that generates interaction (like polls, giveaways, etc).
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Employ a Data-Driven Growth Approach: Implementing a more data-driven marketing approach, understanding metrics, and using analytics to drive their content strategy and future marketing campaigns.
Demographic & Audience Analysis
Current Audience: The current targeted audience is primarily university students, especially from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The focus seems to be on engaging young adults, possibly aged between 18 to 24 years old, looking for a relaxed atmosphere to study, hang out, or grab a quick bite.
Target Audience: An under-targeted audience could be the working professionals within the Champaign-Urbana area. Platforms like LinkedIn or a more professional Instagram or Facebook approach may engage this audience more effectively. This could encompass professionals working in nearby offices, local businesses, or those looking for a calm spot to have business meetings or unwind after work.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has around 55,500 current students. While Caffe Bene’s current audience is students, there are still many more thousands of students who can be engaged. By utilizing platforms and mediums that students frequently interact with, such as Instagram, Reddit, or even hanging flyers, Caffe Bene can work to reach more students and increase their client base.
Audience's Context: This target audience is located within the Champaign-Urbana area, working in various industries, potentially situated in or near the downtown areas, and likely have a higher socio-economic status compared to the student population. They might have an appreciation for quality coffee and food, yet they might not be aware of Caffe Bene's offerings or its ambiance due to the current marketing focus on the student population.
On the other hand, the student population is more focused around price, convenience, and quality. To attract these students Caffe Bene needs to expand their marketing and make themselves knows as a cheap and convenient high quality coffee and food location right on campus.
Audience's Knowledge: This untapped audience might have limited knowledge about Caffe Bene and or mainly associate it with a student-centric atmosphere. They may not be aware of Caffe Bene's potential as a place for casual business meetings, unwinding after work, or grabbing quality coffee during office breaks.
Audience's Values: These professionals likely prioritize quality, efficiency, and convenience in their coffee and dining experiences. They may seek establishments providing high-quality, locally-sourced food and beverages, reflecting their preference for premium products. Efficiency in service, such as quick but quality dining experiences, may also resonate with their busy work schedules. Moreover, they may appreciate an environment that offers practical amenities such as WiFi, and is conducive to both social interactions and work-related discussions. However, it is important that when implementing changes to help draw in the target audience that they don’t alienate the current audience. For example, Caffe Bene doesn’t want to alienate students by raising their prices so that they can use even higher quality ingredients.
Beyond material values, Caffe Bene’s audience may hold morals and hopes concerning community involvement and ethical practices. They might value supporting local businesses, seeking environments that foster community engagement. Furthermore, they could appreciate cafes that prioritize sustainability and ethical sourcing, aligning with their concern for responsible business practices. A hope for a cohesive community and an ethos of ethical and sustainable living may be more central to their values than the student population. Ethically sound and environmentally conscious business operations could also resonate strongly with this audience. Additionally, they may value a welcoming atmosphere that helps foster a sense of belonging within their local community.
01
Evolution of the Campaign
Quantitative Goals
Platforms: Utilize Instagram as the primary platform for visual content due to its high engagement and target audience presence. Other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (X) can be used for essential updates and expanding its audience to the working population.
Frequency: Post regularly (aim for around 3-4 times per week) on Instagram and X to maintain consistent engagement. For Facebook, posts can be less frequent and restricted to more important updates.
02
Qualitative Goals
Visual Consistency: Maintain a cohesive visual aesthetic that builds on and is consistent with their brand identity while allowing some variation for individual locations (Caffe Bene on Green and Caffe Bene on Gregory).
Diverse Content: Use a mix of promotional content, staff highlights, menu features, customer testimonials, and (very important) community involvement to keep content fresh and engaging.
Engagement Strategies: Encourage interaction by incorporating polls, Q&A sessions, giveaways, and user-generated content. Engagement is the biggest factor in increasing Caffe Bene’s audience in this campaign- and in turn, their customer base.
03
Methods to Measure Success
To measure the success and effectiveness of the campaign, we can keep track of many different key performance indicators:
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For social media, this can include likes, followers, comments, impressions, and more. Then, we can measure how this affects sales and customers by comparing the revenue for a specific month from the year before to the current revenue and adjusting that value based on the change over the other months before the marketing changes.
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Caffe Bene can also monitor the changes in traffic and clicks on their Google business page and see how this changes with the campaign, as many users will look up the business on Google to check the hours, and address, leave a review, or call.
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By comparing social media metrics such as followers and tangible values such as sales revenue, Caffe Bene can create a great picture of how effective the campaign was in actually converting viewers into customers.
Post Policy
Unified Changes for both the Champaign and Urbana locations consist of determining branding standards such as fonts. We will be using three types of fonts. The header font will preferably be script and will be used for spotlight covers and post titles. The subheading will be in a natural handwriting style font to specify the location, so anyone perusing the page will always know which location they’re looking at. Lastly, everything else will be in a normal sans serif style font. We also use different color schemes for each location to make it clear they’re a similar brand but different physical locations and thus will have differing atmospheres
Tan white, green, & brown color scheme for all graphics
Fonts
Heading: Holiday
Subheading: Lovelace
Body: Montserrat
Tan, brown, & white color scheme for all graphics
Fonts
Heading: Brusher
Subheading: Dreaming Outloud Sans
Body: Open Sans